With West Midlands Police, it would appear it is when it’s called a ‘milestone’.

It’s fair to say that police performance targets have become much derided in recent years for pushing police to chance outcomes rather than quality of service.

Now the word ‘milestone’ has started to appear in official reports over the past couple of months.

So instead of a crime reduction ‘target’, officers have now been set a ‘milestone’ of, for instance, reducing crime by seven per cent over the next few months.

Attempts by the force’s deputy chief constable David Thompson on his blog to explain the difference has met with the ire of a prominent police blogger.

Referring to the region’s burglary problem, Mr Thompson, wrote: “It rose significantly last year and is high compared to most forces... therefore, a reduction milestone of ten per cent is something we really ought to expect. We are not aiming for the numbers for numbers’ sake.”

But Inspector Gadget, an anonymous blogger who claims to be an Inspector in an English county police force, hit back: “The absolute barefaced cheek of a senior officer whose career was made by slavishly following the performance culture in the first place, now lecturing us about how we must abandon it in favour of something equally as silly is quite unbelievable.”